Cesare Prandelli is caught halfway between a smile and a sigh. “Every time you hope it’s the last time,” he says. No prizes for guessing who is causing the Italy head coach to roll his eyes as he sits in an office at the national team’s training base in Coverciano, Florence.

We are discussing Mario Balotelli, who continues to hold such fascination that the attention can become intolerable. The follow-up to that famous “WHY ALWAYS ME?” T-shirt came last month on a social network when Balotelli did not so much tweet as scream: “CAN I LIVE??”